Fleurs d'après Breughel

Have finished this piece recently. As you know I like to use old things, gifted items and charity shop finds and this is a charity shop unfinished tapestry which I have worked into with appliqué and stitch. I hope to do a series of these for exhibition but find the canvas a bit hard on my hands so have to be really motivated by the image! I love dahlias and zinnias together and these are freshly picked from my allotment where I have a cutting garden.

Frida

I was at the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the V & A yesterday. Loved seeing her personal effects, particularly her sewing box and the little rag doll she had made. When I had put together my Frida Doll course I had not known that she made them too.
I learnt so much about Tehuana costume and was surprised at how rich the fabrics, weaving and embroidery were. In the photographs I have seen over the year it has always been the colour combinations that had impressed me so it was good to get so close to the fabric themselves .
Here is a link to the exhibition. They have extended the date slightly so you might be able to get tickets but be warned it is very busy.

Thread and Thrift place on course

A place has come up for my THREAD AND THRIFT course at The Hearth, Horsley, Northumberland on Sun 8th July. It is £50 for the day including materials. If you are interested please contact me through my website. here is the course description

"I have great respect for the culture of thrift and make do and mend practiced by previous generations in domestic settings and I try to continue this tradition by using what I already have, buying only second hand or incorporating gifted fabrics. Every piece of old fabric or needlework has a story to tell, particularly those created and found through unpicking old pieces of quilt and I collage these little bits of preciousness together into new patchworks which are further embellished with carefully chosen and lovingly work hand stitching. In this workshop you will build up one beautiful collage using old and new materials but if you want to turn it into something more functional I will also show you how to turn it into a little keepsake bag."

The whole story

You blog readers get to see every page of a little wallet book which I have just finished. It has been in progress for a couple of years because I find it difficult to work with green but I got there in the end and it is full of preciousness and tender detail.

For sale!

Just restocked my Etsy shop. I have had little time to make things to sell recently as I have been teaching many many workshops, preparing for Open Studios and of course gardening.
 Link to my shop HERE 

A new display in my studio

This afternoon I have been putting up a display in my studio of a set of new work - appliqués of animals based on a study of staffordshireware china. My daughter did a set of drawings of these and has lent me some of her original cut outs and drawings which I am showing alongside.
I am showing these this weekend for our Open Studios event and then they will be taken down and will not appear again till 2019 when I am going to have an exhibition of them and I hope by then I will have added a few more!

Summer Open Studios, new work

I am sorry I haven't been blogging quite so much recently. The apps for Blogger on my phone and iPad seem to be no longer compatible with Blogger and there doesn't seem to be an update available which means I can only blog now when I sit down at a computer.  I haven't been sewing that much anyway as I have been on the road teaching away from home and in between gardening. After the terrible long winter it has been a perfect Spring to get seeds and the allotment going and it is looking the best I think it ever has. Next weekend we have out Open Studios event and I shall be showcasing my complete collection of appliqués based on Staffordshireware and also the piece below which I have been working on for three or four months on and off. The pictures are not wonderful but I hope it gives you some idea.

A bit Autumnal but one can't help noticing and hearing the birds at the moment. They are so BUSY!

Badger

A sample  for my forthcoming summer school ( fully booked for the last 6 months I am afraid!)

Star

You will be seeing more unique pieces like this appearing in my Etsy shop. I have been a bit despondent recently about copying of my ideas ( this is the downside of teaching I guess) and decided to concentrate more on producing things that are more difficult to copy because of the preciousness of the materials. In the past I have not let these pieces go as I can't repeat them in any way but now is the time to..
This piece which is now on sale with ETSY was inspired by a bunch of purple tulips on my studio.

Garden

Someone has just cancelled their place on my Garden course at The Hearth on 2nd June. If you are interested find full details of the course HERE .

Just Let It Be

This old darned sack which I bought from Fabienne ( Dumasiennes you know who I mean) has been sitting in my studio for some time. I was going to add my own patching, darning and monogram but looking at my photos I realise my message is there - just let it BE....

Log Cabin

My mother's little cross stitch of a log cabin quilt incorporated into a collage on a real fragment of log cabin.

Staffordshire Ware

Here are some new appliqués I have been working on. They are based on my daughter's drawings of china figurines. I have loved doing these.